Senate 5: A hurricane of ads in Montana
By: Scott Wong and David Catanese
October 26, 2012 05:11 PM EST

POLITICO’s daily afternoon scorecard of the five biggest developments in the battle for the Senate.

It’s raining ads in Big Sky Country, the National Republican Senatorial Committee joins the fray in Pennsylvania and Sen. John McCain discovers a star in Arizona.

Friday’s Senate 5:

1. BIG SKY COUNTRY BARRAGED WITH ADS — We feel bad for the good folks of Montana. During the first three weeks of October, more ads have run for their Senate race between Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg — 25,211 to be exact — than in any other Senate race in the country, Gannett reports. Next was the Wisconsin race with 17,906 ads, followed by Indiana (12,922 ads), Virginia (12,863 ads) and Ohio (12,371 ads). Why so many in Big Sky Country? There are a lot of small media markets and the costs of ads are cheap in the state.

2.WHIFF OF HYPOCRISY FOR BROWN? — “A pattern of corruption” — that’s how Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown characterized Republican Josh Mandel’s ex-staffer’s ties to the founder of an anti-Brown super PAC. Now, Brown, who’s seeking a second term, is being accused of a similar arrangement. The Associated Press reported Friday that an Ohio Super PAC responsible for $300,000 in ads against Mandel was founded by a man who served as a top elections official under Brown when he was Ohio secretary of state during the 1980s. And the treasurer of Ohio Families United is a Brown family friend. Both arrangements are legal so long as the PACs don’t coordinate with the campaigns. But Brown’s camp has argued that Mandel’s deal is more egregious since his ex-staffer had just recently made the jump from Mandel’s state treasurer’s office to the lobbying firm behind the anti-Brown PAC.

3. FEW PUNCHES IN PENNSYLVANIA DEBATE, BUT NRSC JOINS FIGHT — The sole debate between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican Tom Smith is unlikely to move the dial in either direction. Friday’s meeting had few fireworks as the candidates stuck to their talking points, shied away from specifics and were generally polite, The Patriot-News reported. Casey, who’s seeking a second term, portrayed Smith as a tea party extremist who would only add to Washington’s gridlock. Smith, who made his fortune from coal mining, cast Casey as a key backer of President Barack Obama’s policies rather than the independent he claims to be. Abortion did come up, but there was no Richard Mourdock moment. The ho-hum affair favors Casey, who’s kept a consistent lead in polls this month in the face of a barrage of negative ads from his self-funding foe. Still, the NRSC sees the possibility of an upset, jumping into the race Friday with a $500,000 ad buy.

4. MOURDOCK: IT’S TIED — It’s not often you see campaigns release internal polling that shows they’ve lost ground. But that’s what Richard Mourdock’s camp did today to sound the alarm bells that they are in a fight for survival after his comments on rape and abortion. GOP pollster John McLaughlin pegs Mourdock and Democrat Rep. Joe Donnelly both at 44 percent. “It’s going to be neck and neck,” conceded Mourdock campaign manager Jim Holden in an email Friday. Democrats say their internals have Donnelly up by 7. The real test will be where Team Mourdock has its internals on Tuesday, after coming out of the field on Sunday and Monday. If they don’t release them, it could be a telltale warning sign that the bottom has fallen out of Mourdock’s bid. Mourdock released a counterattack ad Friday against Donnelly, bemoaning the Democrat’s “distorted personal attacks” and charging that he “and his liberal allies have gone too far.”

5. ALMOST FAMOUS IN ARIZONA — When Arizona news anchor Brahm Resnik hopped on a conference call Friday, Sen. John McCain just couldn’t resist. “Brahm, Mr. Carmona made you famous. People know you now that have never knew you before. Congratulations!” the Arizona Republican said in jest. Resnik, of course, took part in an exchange during last week’s Arizona Senate debate that went viral after Democrat Richard Carmona told Resnik he was “prettier” than CNN anchor Candy Crowley. That got Carmona, who’s running against Republican Rep. Jeff Flake, in hot water. Though Carmona swiftly apologized, McCain was all too happy to revive the issue. “That was a pretty serious thing that Mr. Carmona said,” McCain told Resnik. “People don’t make jokes like Mr. Carmona made. What Mr. Carmona said is very revealing, particularly given his past record with women.” McCain and fellow Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl were infuriated with Carmona after he ran an ad Thursday night featuring decade-old footage of the GOP senators praising him during his confirmation hearing to become U.S. surgeon general. “We had a lot more faith in Mr. Carmona than turned out to be justified,” McCain said.

Who Won The Day: Josh Mandel. His Democratic opponent is hit with a negative story after Mandel endured weeks of tough press. And Brown concedes in a fundraising email to supporters it’s a “1-point race.”

Who Lost The Day: Republican Charlie Summers. The NRSC has gone dark in Maine, leaving it up to outside groups to try to knock off independent Angus King, the front-runner.